Archives for July 2007
I was quite relieved to encounter this section, or perhaps I should say, to get to the end of the previous section. If my Xenophon-blogging has been light for the past few, it has not been for lack of trying. I just found most of this chapter to be very, very tough reading.
For most […]
Inspired Iraq claims Asian Cup crown
Iraq won the Asian Cup for the first time Sunday, a beacon of hope for a nation divided by war.
Iraq’s 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia on a 71st-minute header by captain Younis Mahmoud was an inspirational triumph for a team whose players straddle bitter and violent ethnic divides.
Congratulations!
A Fighting Retreat from Iraq, this article from today’s NYTimes seemed appropriate:
GETTING out of a war requires as much planning as getting into one.
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave the strongest indication yet that the Bush administration is thinking in detail about an eventual withdrawal. In a letter to Senator Hillary Clinton, Mr. Gates […]
This is not my favorite section so far, essentially a hagiography of Cyrus. Also, I find the Greek to be more difficult than other sections, perhaps it is unfamiliar vocabulary or a slightly flowery style that is appropriate for a section of lavish praise.
Cities and individuals would ally themselves with Cyrus, because of his “carrot-and-stick” […]
This section continues the laudatory biography of Cyrus (killed last chapter at the Battle of Cunaxa).
There Cyrus appeared to be the most respectful of his peers, and to be obedient to his elders (even more than his inferiors), the most fond of horses and best able to handle them. And, in the arts of […]
Cyrus thus met his end, a man, of all the Persians born since Cyrus the Elder (Cyrus the Great), most kingly and most worthy to rule, as seemingly everyone who knew him agreed. First, when he was a child, being educated with his brother and other children, he was considered by everyone to be […]
Pope: Creation vs. evolution an ‘absurdity’
Pope Benedict XVI said the debate raging in some countries — particularly the United States and his native Germany — between creationism and evolution was an “absurdity,” saying that evolution can coexist with faith.
The pontiff, speaking as he was concluding his holiday in northern Italy, also said that while there […]
Since I’m reading the Anabasis primarily as a learning exercise, towards my very long-term goal of reading Homer in the original Greek, I went back to the beginning of the book and am re-reading.
Plowing through the book, as I have been doing, is quite slow: checking vocabulary, reading the extensive footnotes, and teasing out […]
We only know what Xenophon chose to tell us. And that’s an important point. Xenophon, in the Anabasis, (or any writer of any book) can only say so much about any one person, or event, or place. So, if a writer tells us only one thing about a person, presumably that is the most important […]
This is it, the climactic battle, known as the Battle of Cunaxa, although Xenophon himself didn’t use the name.
Cyrus has led his Greek mercenary army all the way from Sardis (in western Asia Minor) to the outskirts of Babylon. While comparatively few, the Greek hoplites, heavily armored, and keeping in closely–packed and well-ordered phalanxes were […]
(I’ve gotten a bit ahead in my reading, so in this post, I’ll just provide a rough translation and summary of the beginning of Chapter 8.)
It was mid-morning and the army was about to stop for a meal, when Pategyas, one of Cyrus’s confidants, came riding up on a lathered horse, hollering in both Persian […]
Here’s the last bit of Chapter 7.
When reading Greek, which seems to have long sentences, with words in a loose order, it’s easy (for me as a beginner) to lose track of the subject of the sentence. As the prepositional phrases and dependent clauses pile up, and one suddenly comes upon a verb, it can […]
Still expecting Artaxerxes, the Great King of Persia, his brother, to fight, Cyrus brings his army of Greek mercenaries and “barbarians” almost to Babylon. They encounter a defensive ditch, dug by the King.
There is at least one sentence in this passage (in boldface) that I just do not understand. First, let’s be clear what […]
Filming begins on Tom Cruise movie
Shooting began Thursday in a forest outside Berlin on a movie starring Tom Cruise as Germany’s most famous anti-Hitler plotter. The German government said it was letting filmmakers shoot anywhere they requested, except the former German general staff headquarters.
The so-called Bendler Block, where Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg was […]
As the expected climactic battle looms, the Greeks seek more assurances of greater rewards, Cyrus predicts that his brother will not give up without a fight, and Xenophon enumerates the opposing armies.
In the first paragraph, note the words “south” and “north.” In the Greek, “south” is mesembrian, literally, “towards the noonday sun,” while “north” is […]
